Historiography and sources of the problem of the Soviet prisoners-of-war of Kazakh ethnicity in the Second World War

Abstract

During the Second World War, European ideas of liberation, fighting with fascism were widespread. In Western European countries the Resis- tance Movements to Nazi and collaborators were very actively in France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and other countries. During the WWII, accord-    ing to the German High Command 5 million  270 thousand Soviet sol-  diers were taken as prisoners-of-war. According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the USSR 4 million 559,000 Soviet people was captured. And all of them were kept in concentration camps in Europe. Thousands of them escaped from concentration and labor camps and joined to the resistance movements in the Nazi-occupied territories. It is known that Kazakhs fought in the fronts of the WWII in the ranks of the active Soviet army, and Kazakhstan was a safe rear area that produced every third bullet for the front, sheltered people evacuated from the Soviet territories oc- cupied by the Nazis, etc. But participation of Kazakhs in the resistance movements in occupied European countries and Germany itself still awaits its researchers. On the basis of Kazakh and foreign materials the article highlights historiography and sources of the problem of Soviet prisoners-of- war in the Second World War (on the example of Kazakhs).